Miracles Happen

Dear Family,
What a wonderful week! I need to start by telling you the miracle which has taken several months to develop. My very last week in Spartanburg, Elder Thayne and I were blessed to find many new investigators. It was Sunday evening, and we came across a man who was sitting on a porch and we taught him the restoration. It was a nice lesson, but when we left, his mother came out and she was not very excited to see us. Anyways, I had forgotten all about this incident until this last week. Elder Thayne, who was transferred into my zone the same day as Elder Fitzgerald, called me up and asked me if I had looked at the weekly mission report, I told him I had glanced at it, but nothing really stood out. Elder Thayne reminded me that in Spartanburg, a man had been baptized. Elder Thayne went on to explain that it was the very man we had met my third to last day in Spartanburg! What an amazing miracle! I am so happy that that man decided to enter the waters of baptism and make that sacred covenant with our Heavenly Father. The funny part is that I honestly don't even remember his name! I will have to ask Elder Thayne later.

The other miracle that we experienced this week was that after working really hard and not having any real results from it, the Lord saw fit to place someone in our path that we will have the opportunity to teach. On Sunday, Elaine, a local member, brought her friend Samantha to Church. Samantha went to basic training for national guard and while she was there she had attended the LDS services. Samantha really enjoyed attending, so when she came home and told her friend Elaine about this interesting church she had attended Elaine explained that she was a member. Elaine invited her to attend the local church in Florence. Samantha came and loved it. The ward was great at reaching out and welcoming her and inviting her to come back next week. We have an appointment with her this evening and Elaine is going to be there as well!

This week has been interesting because last Monday the assistants told us that were going to have a surprise zone conference. It really shocked me. So on Wednesday morning Elder Fitzgerald and I had a zone development meeting at 8:00 in the morning and at 9:00 we then have a zone conference. At the end of the zone conference, I jumped in the car with the Elders that work Sumter to go on an exchange and when we just pulled into Sumter, I received a phone call from Elder Fitzgerald informing me that we were supposed to meet with the stake president in a half hour and Elder Fitzgerald was a little nervous because he had never attended a stake correlation meeting before. I felt horrible that I had completely spaced the meeting, but I turned the car around and headed back up to Florence. I literally sprinted into the meeting. It was quite disorganized, (which was completely my fault for forgetting, but it turned out all right,and everything that we needed to get across was communicated and assignments were made to help the work progress here in the Florence Stake.) (Oh by the way Dad, I would love to attend one of your stake correlation meetings when I get done with my extension! :)

That's the update for right now. The entire church is redoing the mission process, from the way the MTC is run, to all the missions around the world. To start this change, I have to be at a leadership meeting in Columbia starting tomorrow and it will last for four days! I don't know how we are going to help our investigators progress in the gospel with only tonight, Saturday and Sunday to actually be here, but the Lord will provide a way (1 Nephi 3:7).

I love each of you and I appreciate the continual prayers in behalf of my companion and I, and our investigators.

Love,
Elder Cowan